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Insulin and Diabetes Management

Glucose (Sugar) Monitoring

Monitoring glucose (sugar) levels in urine or blood has always been part of the insulin users’ daily routine. The first home tests involved boiling urine over an alcohol burner and observing color change after adding a chemical reagent. Later kits replaced the alcohol and liquid chemicals with reactive tablets which required no exterior heat source. By the 1960s color changing testing strips were developed which reacted directly with urine.

Today, most testing is done using blood glucose, rather than urine glucose. Blood glucose testing was not possible outside of the laboratory until the 1970s when the first test strips and digital blood glucose monitoring devices became available for home use.

Examination of Urine for Sugar with the Urine Sugar Test Case, Sheftel, from Diabetes Mellitus by Eli Lilly and Company. 1942.